Tax-Payers must send millions more to PERS

PERS, the Public Employee Retirement System, provides retirement benefits to all state public employees including teachers. According to a new report, the system is underfunded to the tune of millions of dollars per year.

How big is the funding gap to get PERS financially sound?

100 million dollars per year.

The total funding gap to ensure full benefits is hovering around 5 billion dollars.

Over the last two decades, taxpayer contribution rates (as the employer) have doubled and now stand at 17.4% for the upcoming year.

This means that 17.4% of teacher and other public employee salary is contributed in to the PERS system.

With the current funding increase it is believed the system may be financially sound by 2042.